Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

A Muppet always pays his debts – Sesame Street finds new home behind paywall

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, announced a programming deal that will send Sesame Street from its longtime publicly-subsidized home on PBS to the corporate Time Warner-owned home of Westeros on HBO. According to a press release from Sesame Workshop, the deal includes:

  • a five-year order of 35 episodes per season (nearly twice its current 18 episodes per season);
  • 150 library episodes;
  • a muppet-based spinoff series;
  • an additional educational series;
  • library episodes from Sesame Workshop-produced shows Pinky Dinky Doo; and,
  • 2009 reboot of the 1970s educational series The Electric Company.

New episodes of Sesame Street will begin airing on HBO as early as this fall.

Exact financial details of the agreement were not immediately released. On the surface, this looked like a surprise move. After all, aside from movies, HBO is known primarily for its adult-themed programs like Game of Thrones, The Wire, Girls, and True Detective because FCC governance is less strict on premium television. However, the move benefits both Sesame Workshop and HBO.

From the article "A Muppet always pays his debts – Sesame Street finds new home behind paywall" by Glenn Hower.

Previously In The News

Apple Needs Netflix and HBO More Than They Need It

According to a survey from Parks Associates, 36% of households subscribe to two or more streaming video services. If Apple provides a convenient way for subscribers to see all of their paid content in...

Poll shows consumers not sure what 'Internet of Things' means

Dyn, the sites' common DNS provider, said its investigation showed that many of the compromised smart devices had been infected with a malware because of inadequate security protections. Since then, m...

Netflix Is Killing It—Big Time—After Pouring Cash Into Original Shows

“There seemed to be an attitude around the industry that after House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, there was no way Netflix could catch lightning in a bottle again,” says Glenn Hower, a senior...

Choose-Your-Own-Adventures Just Landed on Netflix. Yes, Netflix

Books and videogames have done this for years, but achieving good results with video has proved difficult. Beyond making the technology work, open-ended storytelling doesn't make much sense from a bus...